Good-life Daily Devotional

By Rev Michael Benson Ajayi Luke 10:17 - "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name."  Isaiah 29:6 NIV " the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire."           A person's  name is a summary of  his or her character. Whenever a name is mentioned ,a demand is made on the power inherent in that name. Therefore, whenever the name of Jesus Christ was mentioned by the disciples it was as though Jesus was present in their midst in the fullness of His almighty power . Demons had no option but to obey      The scriptures describes the potency in the name of Jesus Christ in  Philippians  2:9-12 “ Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that J

By Rev Michael  Benson Ajayi        Gen 22:8,13 KJV " And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.... And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son."        Prophet  Abraham demonstrated the most audacious act of faith by attempting to sacrifice  his son in obedience to God's voice and when asked by his son Isaac about the sacrificial ram his answer was profound "God will provide himself ". This statement was an indication that he understood , that  God did not  just want to provide things for us rather He wants to give himself to and for us which was what happened on the cross of Calvary. The same way God provided a ram, that is how He mysteriously provided a body for the atonement for the sins of man through Jesus Christ . Once you ha

  By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi Rom 4:2-3KJV " For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Luke 10:25-37 "…You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?....."         Salvation  is not by any self-effort or performance of any religious ritual .Prophet Abraham did not belong to any religious group before he was declared righteous by God.There was no room to boast about how  many times he prayed, went on pilgrimages, gave an offering etc before he was justified by God. It was by faith only. The Old Testament scriptures of Isaiah1;24-27,Deuteronomy 9:4-6 says it is  strictly God's prerogative. The New testament corroborates this in Mathew t26:26 and in Ephesians 2:8 that it is by grace that we are saved. The G

By Rev .Michael Benson Ajayi.  Prov 3:13 “Happy is the man that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding”.        Wisdom is simply the ability to make the right choices. It entails being at the right place at the right time with the right people while doing the right thing.  The end result of wisdom is the fulfillment of one’s expectations and happiness. Wisdom is a divine virtue emanating from a personal intercourse with the Spirit of God. Wisdom is supreme; the binding force of joyful relationships and guarantees sustainability in businesses and communities that is why the scriptures says in  Proverbs 4:7” Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding”.      Most persona neglect the indispensability of wisdom in their relationships and set out to build their marriages; relationships on other virtues such as love .We may feel good for a while but soon pay the price for neglecting wisdom.  One of the ironies of life is that mor

  By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi Mark 11:20-21 “In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.  Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" NIV    Jesus' disciples were surprised to see how quick it took for the tree to wither. The previous day He  had sought for food from the tree but found none and He cursed  the tree and by morning it withered.  The tree began to die from the roots up. It died instantly just as Jesus said, and it was a process that was not immediately visible until the next morning.     This is typical of the process involving the manifestation of the miraculous when we pray. A similar situation was involved in the healing of the boy in Mark 9:26-27NIV” The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead."  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up..’ For a mo

    By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi  Matthew 22:23 "The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,”        When a corn seed is planted, it goes into a process of complete decay and something amazing happens: out of the decayed material emerges a new crop according to its genetic code. The genetic code did not die with the other parts of the seed. If it did something else would have emerged.  This is one of the many mysteries of life on earth and it gives us a clue of what happens at death .Resurrection means "to come alive again."         Life is a continuum . Daniel 12:2 TLB "And many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” . Human beings consist of three parts - a spirit, a soul, and a body (1 Th.5:23). The body is mortal while the spirit and soul are immortal. It is just like a mobile phone which consists of three parts: a hardware,

By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi   "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new." 2Corinthians 5.17 Bible     The moment a person receives Jesus Christ as lord and saviour ,his or old life and identity abruptly comes to an end and now everything is new in Christ. Everything from your old life (failures,overwhelming appetite for sin , heartbreaks, curses, hopelessness, rejection, slavery etc) has ended and all things have become new. It is likened to what happens when a woman (a daughter of an abusive father) gets married and changes her surname. She undergoes a radical transformation in status in an instant. As soon as the marriage vows are exchanged and she is declared a wife an overwhelming essence takes over the woman with authority , control and freedom. Physically , she is the same but she has gone through a spiritual transformation witnessed by angels and society would no longer frown at her slee

  By Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi   Romans 1:16 "I am not ashamed of the gospel .." Believers are expected to share the gospel every opportunity they have .There are simple steps on how to sell yourself to your audience as a preacher of the gospel.           Ask questions in every discussion as a way of showing interest in your audience (Proverbs. 18:13.) People easily show interest in us when we are interested in them .         Learn to be a good listener , it tells your audience you have respect for them and gives you a better insight of the topic on ground (James 1:19) . People easily pay attention to us when they observe how much respect we have shown them by listening to their point of view.    Allow them to express themselves freely without restrictions ,when we allow people speak their heart freely it gives us an opportunity to really know their state of mind and affords us the opportunity to identify the weaknesses in their belief system ,this is important in building an

    By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi  Mathew 4:19 Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men         Jesus gave “the Great Commission” to all Christians. We are called to reconcile men back to God. The scriptures says in 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 TLB "All these new things are from God who brought us back to himself through what Christ Jesus did. And God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favor and be reconciled to him".         We were saved on purpose to fulfill a divine purpose . Jesus said in  Mark 16:15 TLB " And then he told them, "You are to go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.  Acts 1.8 NLT says  "But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power to testify about me with great effect, to the people in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, about my death and resurrection." The death and resurrection of Christ makes little or no meaning to a sin

    By  Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi Luke 16:19-31"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried....."        There is life after death as portrayed in this narrative by Jesus Christ of a real event . It is easy to logically deduce this if we consider the fact that if today is yesterday’s future then it means tomorrow is today’s future and so on through eternity. It is the activities within a time frame that defines the period of an event for example; a wedding anniversary date is defined by the wedding that took place on that date. It therefore follows that for every existing time frame there must be an event, even eternity. Based on this logic, there must be an afterlife since time has no end or else there won’t be eternity.        There is no transition period or dimension  where souls are kept frozen for a futuristic resurrection of our bodies. From the above scripture we immediately go into a consci

By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi Matt 15:2KJV " Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread."      There is beauty in every human being but unfortunately persons caught up in the habit of fault- finding are usually overwhelmed with details of other peoples' shortcoming that they deprive themselves from seeing the beauty of God's grace in humanity (Matthew7:4-5) . Most marriages, business relationships would be stronger if we refuse to allow ourselves get preoccupied with our partner’s faults. More energy should be channeled towards building  better friendships and less on discovery of each other's errors. The religious folks of Jesus' time were more concerned about ablutions and eating habits of the disciples and less interested in their positive contributions to the society. We are to play a complimentary and not a competitive role in our relationships          Fault- finding is the by-product of

    By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi Acts 8:20 KJV “ But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.”      It is common practice among magicians and mystics or mediums to seek help from each other in other to achieve a goal . A medium is a person who serves as a go- between for those seeking information from the spirit-world. They are also referred to as magicians          “ In its modern accepted sense magic may be described as the art of bringing about results beyond man's own power by superhuman agencies. In the wide sense of this definition divination is only a species of magic, i.e. magic used as a means of securing secret knowledge, especially a knowledge of the future. Divination and magic bear a similar relation to prophecy and miracle respectively, the first and third implying special knowledge, the second and fourth special power. But divination has to do generally with omens ..” (from Internatio

By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi  2 Cor 12:9  " And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me". KJV           God's perspective on greatness is diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive to man's idea of prosperity.What man considers as a demotion is God's way of promoting His servants . Moses was taken from his position as a prince in Egypt to being a shepherd boy. Likewise, despite his status among the prophets John the baptist ended in prison Luke 3:20, "....he shut up John in prison." Much of apostle Paul's writings { over 60% of the new testament}were written from behind prison walls. His ordeals are summarized in  2 Corinthians 11:27" In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness".KJV. Paul's ministry witnessed mo

    Rev.Michael Benson Ajayi John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down  his life for his friends."    There is a remarkable difference between what the world considers as love and what the word of God says love is. While the world defines it as compassion for self and for someone from which there is a derivable benefit, biblical love goes beyond passion: it is purposeful, necessary and sacrificial ; ironically, more persons perish as a result of love than any other reason globally .Over 5 million unborn babies are slaughtered yearly through abortion  as a result of people making love .         The origin of wars are traceable to a person seeking to demonstrate affection for someone .In judges 15 , Samson declared war against the Philistines because his father in-law refused him access to his wife .Most men live their lives with a 'conquest' mentality and are driven by the desire to impress a woman. Adam ate the forbidden fruit not because he

    By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi Luke 12:58" As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison". NIV     Money spent on the acquisition of weapons of warfare far exceeds that needed to feed the world, the threat of war is a major reason for the economic downturn of many underdeveloped nations , families with conflicts  tend to  spend more on seeking for alternative sources of recreation than they earn: they are easy prey for false prophets who take advantage of the lack of unity to extort money through fables.. Internal conflicts cripples a nation's finances .Strife opens the door to poverty , demonic oppression and manipulations. Your prosperity has a direct bearing on  the status of your relationships. Healthy relationships is a necessary condition for prosperity.          Jesus had just spoken about re

  By Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi   1Chronicles 29:12 'Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all."      In addition to hard work and striving for excellence ,faith is an indispensable element in attaining success and a fulfilled life, it is for that reason that a commitment to work with God is indispensable in the attainment of good success . Success is incomplete without a healthy relationship with God through Jesus Christ ( Mark 8:36). Success is living according to divine purpose . It is never the accumulation of riches or else John the baptist who was rated the greatest of all prophets (Matthew 11:11, Matthew 3:4 ) yet without a wife, children, riches would have been rated a grand failure by today's standards , same with Elisha , apostle Paul and other great servants of God.  However, riches can come as a result of living according to divine pu